Crossroads in Cross Media and Return Path Data

Last week’s Cross-Platform Video Measurement Summit not only addressed new advancements in cross-platform measurement, it also provided an update on the state of return path data. For those of us who have been grappling with how to best measure content in the world of Big Data, it was an opportunity to have some of the best minds in the business present their vision of the digital future.

When it comes to cross-platform measurement solutions in that area seem to be an embarrassment of riches. Research companies such as Nielsen, Arbitron, ComScore, Simmons, GFK MRI and Google are forming partnerships, merging data streams and creating market positions. But the ability to measure a specific piece of video across all potential platforms remains elusive. Artie Bulgrin from ESPN said “We need passive real time measurements” for cross platform in the form of universal watermarks.

CIMM (The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement) is doing just that – developing a universal watermarking protocol for the measurement of video across all possible platforms. This initiative, called TAXI (Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification) started in 2010 and, as Managing Director Jane Clarke announced, will be entering a Proof of Concept pilot stage this fall. As with CIMM’s Set-Top Box Data Lexicon which strives to form a common language for return path data measurement, TAXI should help create a common language for cross-platform - a universal watermark which enables video across platforms and across companies to be measured and compared.

Moving the industry towards new measurement protocols takes time. Some are impatient with evolution and advocate an upending of today’s measurement shibboleths. As NBC’s Alan Wurtzel said, we need to “rethink the idea of TV video measurement and be open to new ideas.” Maybe that means dropping household and demographic group metrics (which are only proxies for individual behavior anyway) and focus on behaviorally segmented data.

Return Path Data is another area where measurement partnerships are finding fertile ground and where the need for a common language remains acute. In 2010, CIMM produced a Whitepaper on the STB Data Landscape. This whitepaper was recently updated and the results were presented by GroupM’s Lyle Schwartz and ABC’s Mark Loughney at the Summit. Both the original whitepaper and the re-contact study are posted on the CIMM website www.cimm-us.org.

From 2010 to today, CIMM found that there been positive movement in the use of return path data, predominantly in the advancement of addressable advertising and local measurement. There has been much more acceptance over the past year for the use of the data in various forms – both within companies and externally in the industry. There is even some movement in standardizing the data with the creation of foundational datasets.

But privacy concerns continue to be an important consideration in both cross platform and return path data implementation. In the area of RPD in particular, privacy is one of the reasons why there has not been greater roll-out of data across all MVPDs. The perceived limited amount of data as well as the cost associated with the available data is a source of frustration for some data end users.

For those of us immersed in big data for the media industry, the challenges of last year are still challenges this year. But forward movement is palpable. Some of these challenges are finally, albeit slowly, being met in the form of universal watermarks (for cross platform) and foundational datasets (in RPD). Can we be content with a slow but steady evolution or are we ready to foment a revolution?

Q&A Interview with Jane Clarke - CIMM

This week the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) announced the results of a feasibility study for the Trackable Asset Cross-Platform Identification (TAXI) project. This study, in partnership with the ANA, 4A’s and the IAB is a first step in implementing open and interoperable industry standard codes for content and ads across all content. I sat down with CIMM’s Managing Director, Jane Clarke to talk about TAXI and other CIMM initiatives.


CIMM could not have chosen a better Managing Director than Jane Clarke whose extensive and deep experience in Cross Platform and Set Top Box data contribute to her stellar reputation in the media industry. CIMM has two major initiatives – to facilitate the understanding of STB data and help facilitate Cross Platform measurement.

In this video interview, conducted a few days before the release of the TAXI findings, Jane discusses not only the specifications and back story of TAXI but also CIMM’s Cross Platform industry position, STB data and privacy. She also shares some predictions for the media landscape over the next few years.

The five videos that comprise the full interview are as follows:

Subject                               Length (in minutes)
Background                          (2:13)
CIMM and Cross Platform   (5:35)
TAXI                                   (12:29)
Set Top-Box Data                (8:37)
Privacy and Predictions         (7:54)


Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke, Managing Director of CIMM who discusses her background in cable and cross platform: in this 2:13 minute video clip:





Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke who talks about CIMM and its cross platform initiatives in this 5:35 minute video clip:





Charlene Weisler interviews Jane Clarke who discusses TAXI, CIMM's latest initiative. This informative video is 12:29 minutes long:



Jane Clarke talks about CIMM's work in Set Top Box data including the Lexicon and Set Top Box Data Landscape whitepaper in this 8:37 minute video:




In this final video, Jane Clarke discusses the issue of Privacy and well as offers some insights inot the future media landscape. This concluding video is 7:54 minutes long:

CIMM STB Roadmap Whitepaper

CIMM (The Committee For Innovative Media Measurement) has just released the results of an extensive study on the Set Top Box data landscape. I have had the privilege of participating in the collection of the data with Managing Director Jane Clarke and then of compiling the results and writing the resulting whitepaper.

The CIMM STB Data Roadmap Whitepaper is the next step after the CIMM STB Data Lexicon of Terms and Defintions. CIMM's intent with the whitepaper was to explore the current state of STB data as it applies to understanding its strengths and weaknesses for a wide range of applications. Included in the analysis are feedback and insights from a range of constituents from data originators to data processors to software vendors to end users at advertising agencies and content providers as well as other interested parties such as media industry organizations.

The whitepaper – which summarizes and analyzes the results of the study - is arguably the only complete, holistic appraisal of the STB landscape available today. We reached out to all sectors of the industry – all those who touch and are touched by the data. The level of cooperation and the comfort that executives from across the spectrum had with the process is a testament to CIMM’s position in the industry as an unbiased coalition of the end users of media data.

In addition to an industry overview, a goal of the project was to prioritize an industry road map for the development STB data for a variety of uses such as use by the MVPDs (Multi-Channel Video Program Distributors) for marketing and carriage negotiations, granular analyses of programming and advertising, enabling various forms of segmented or addressable advertising or spending on television promotions, matching with outside databases to enable media buying ROI analyses and development of an audit-ready local or national measurement product, all while operating in a construct that does not violate consumer privacy laws. This whitepaper offers insights into the advantages and challenges of the data with suggestions for a workable STB measurement model to which media companies – from programmers to marketers to agencies - may support and subscribe.

Please click here for a PDF version of the CIMM STB Data Roadmap Whitepaper.